I finally found a classical atelier where I could take classes here on the Big Island, and classes began this month. I have permission from my teacher, Rose Adare, to post my insights from our classes here to my blog.

As you may know, I’m almost completely self-taught, since I didn’t have any interest in painting until I moved to Hawaii in my 40s, and believe me, I am well aware of the gaps in my knowledge and constantly strive to correct them.

Here is my first drawing after the first class.

• I picked this image because I thought it would be easy. Funny me.
• Early on, I realized the importance of padding my drawing paper.  The texture from my drawing board was coming through on my actual drawing.
• Measure once.  Mark.  Measure twice again, from different directions.  THEN make a darker mark.
• It is important to begin a drawing with lighter lines, and this one I have to work on.  It leaves room for changes.  Darker lines seem more complete and close off a drawing from further improvements both physically and emotionally.
• I’m too lazy to use multiple pencils at this point.  I’d rather use one and figure out how dark is dark using pressure than having to figure that out for multiple pencils.

Here is my second drawing:

• It isn’t finished, and it is significantly better already.
• I used a 5B pencil rather than the 2B I used on the first drawing.
• Even during the second drawing my measuring skills have increased dramatically, especially since I am measuring with my left hand while drawing with my right.
• This is the sight-size method, we are drawing images the same size as the original.  Not having to adjust for scale (increasing or decreasing the size of the original image) makes this process much easier.  No grid, no ruler.  We use a bamboo skewer or a pencil to measure from the master drawing to the paper.

Not to worry, I continue to paint at the same time!  Seahorse update to follow!